


Coming Out of the Dark

by vivaforever597



Category: Kuragehime | Princess Jellyfish
Genre: Coming Out, F/F, Trans Character, Trans Female Character, Trans Kurako
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-04
Updated: 2017-07-04
Packaged: 2018-11-23 11:30:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 861
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11401605
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/vivaforever597/pseuds/vivaforever597
Summary: Kurako's finally reached a decision about her future. Now she just has to tell the best friend she secretly loves. (Wow, how's that for a clichéd summary? Not such a clichéd story, I hope.)





	Coming Out of the Dark

**Author's Note:**

> GOD I LOVE THESE GIRLS. They're so sweet and fun and totally the embodiments of my own "impossible princess" moniker (which I, of course, shamelessly took from [Kylie Minogue](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tze6VyGhn1U)). And of course, trans girl Kurako is gospel, especially considering her line late in the series about "the girl I should have been" or something to that effect. Like, baby, you just _can_ be.
> 
> Title comes from a [Gloria Estefan song](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QS7qLDizDYo) \- not one of my favorites, truthfully, but one that's so applicable to what these girls could be for each other.

The woman stared out at the park, smiling at the feeling of the sunshine on her long legs.

She was reminded of the time she’d sat there comforting Tsukimi, only for some child to call them lesbians. Well, she reflected, maybe he was closer to the truth than she’d cared to admit at the time.

Subconsciously, she smoothed out the paper in her lap on which she’d written her name. _Koibuchi Kurako_. It was a dumb name, she reflected, created in a panicked moment. She could as easily have been a Yui or Rin or Emi or any other name – she wished she were, actually – but of course they’d all leapt out of her mind. So she seemed stuck with Kurako now. Maybe it wasn’t so bad, really. It was unusual, to be sure. Not unlike her.

She absently brushed a strand of hair out of her face. Someday, she thought, her real hair would be long enough for her to go without these silly, warm wigs. Though of course, she’d still have to keep them around to go with her outfits as necessary...

For lack of anything else to focus on, her mind wandered to her conversation with her brother a few nights previous. Looking back, it seemed appropriate that he’d been the first one to hear it – for as much as they rubbed each other the wrong way, he was the only one who’d been with her the whole time. She’d worked up all her courage to talk to Tsukimi, but when she’d finally called, she’d been greeted by Tsukimi’s voicemail message. The girl had left her phone for dead again.

So when she’d literally bumped into her brother in the hallway, it had seemed like fate. She wasn’t sure if he was unsurprised to learn that his cross-dressing brother was in fact his sister, or if he was just as unruffled as always. Or if he simply didn’t care, which was always a possibility when it came to anything that didn’t directly affect his career.

He’d had just one question. “The girls that are all around you. Wouldn’t this push them away? That is, wouldn’t it be easier if you stayed a boy?”

Kurako had bristled inwardly, but just grinned and shook her finger at him. “That’s not the point, dear brother!” she’d singsonged. “Anyway, they usually think I’m gay anyway.” Shuu had flushed bright red, making her smile in genuine amusement. He could put up with having a cross-dressing brother, but people thinking that brother was _gay_ was a step too far?

She’d giggled to herself. She _was_ gay, after all, albeit not in the way her friends might think.

“Are you laughing at me?” he’d demanded, as ever failing to sound the least bit intimidating.

“Oh, no, not at all,” she’d said. It was half true.

But really, she reflected, what those girls thought of her was immaterial. She no longer found them interesting, after all. More to the point – Shuu had been concerned, she thought genuinely, about her romantic prospects. Which wasn’t the point, as she’d told him, but even if it were, what did it matter?

What the _hell_ did it matter when the girl she liked – the only one she’d ever _really_ liked – would never see her that way anyway?

She sat there for a few more minutes pondering her situation until the girl in question appeared, panting even though her jog was barely faster than most people’s walk. “Sorry I’m late,” she said between breaths. “I got sidetracked by Chieko. Had to help her —”

Kurako waved away her explanations. At this moment, she wasn’t particularly interested in Chieko’s latest project. “Hey, Tsukimi,” she said with deliberate lightness as the girl sat next to her, “what would you say if— if—” She suddenly felt like her throat had swollen shut to keep her from getting the words out.

Damn it, what _was_ it with Tsukimi’s effect on her?

“—if I were Kurako,” she choked out. Tsukimi just stared back, sweetly puzzled. She started to open her mouth, but Kurako cut her off. “All the time.” She paused. “If this boy were a girl.”

Tsukimi stared down at her lap for a moment, and Kurako resisted the urge to fill the silence with something senseless. Then Tsukimi looked back up to meet her eye. “Does that make you happy?” she asked.

Kurako couldn’t stop a chuckle bubbling up from her throat. Happy? Nah, she knew what would make her _really_ happy, but there was no chance of that... “Happi _er_ ,” she said aloud.

“Well, then, it’s good, right?” Tsukimi said simply. She settled back on the bench, as if that was all there was to it. Kurako started to say something more, but stopped when she saw Tsukimi was no longer looking at her, but instead was staring into space. _What could she thinking?_ Kurako wondered, a little annoyed. _Is she thinking about jellyfish at a time like this?_

In Tsukimi’s head, the world around her had faded into her mother’s bedroom. _Mom,_ she thought, _can a girl still become a princess if she doesn’t find a prince?_

_What if she finds a princess?_


End file.
